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Dunn Trial: Fiancee of accused killer is called to testify against him in court

Rhonda Rouer details events before and after shooting of Jordan Davis

Witness Rhonda Rouer, Michael Dunn's fiancee, testifies on the stand. She reacts while watching the video from the Gate gas station when the shots rang out outside the store.

At the request of defense attorney Cory Strolla, State Attorney Angela Corey showed the jury the pocket knife that Jordan Davis had in his pocket the night he was shot. The knife had been opened after removal from a display of other items found in Davis' pockets, again at the request of Strolla.

The last witness of the day was Wendy Meacham, a forensic investigator for the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office. She had confirmed for State Attorney Angela Corey (L) that the evidence bags matched the display of items removed from Jordan Davis' body before autopsy. The display is held by Assistant State Attorney John Guy (C) as they confer with defense attorney Cory Strolla.

The last witness of the day, Wendy Meacham, a forensic investigator for the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office, confirms for State Attorney Angela Corey (C) that the evidence bags match the display of items removed from Jordan Davis' body before autopsy. The display is held by Assistant State Attorney John Guy (L).

“I hate that thug music.”

Those were the last words Rhonda Rouer heard her fiance, Michael David Dunn, say before he fired 10 shots at a car containing four black teenagers at a Southside Gate gas station. One of those teenagers, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was killed.

On Saturday afternoon Rouer, crying and shaking uncontrollably, was compelled to testify against the man she intends to marry and told jurors what happened before and after Davis was killed on Black Friday in November 2012.

Her anguish appeared to unsettle the courtroom. Dunn, 47, and his family sitting in the front row fought back tears, and members of the Davis family looked at the ground as she hyperventilated and tried to keep her hands from shaking. Acting Circuit Judge Russell Healey took the unusual step of bringing Rouer into court before the jury was in the room in an effort to calm her down before she was called to the stand.

When she finished testifying, Rouer whispered, “I’m so sorry” as she got off the stand. It was unclear if she was speaking to a bailiff, Dunn, the Davis family or someone else.

Rouer said she and Dunn had left the wedding of Dunn’s son earlier in the day in Orange Park to go back to their hotel and check on their dog. Dunn had consumed three or four rum and cokes at the wedding, but Rouer said he seemed fine to drive their Volkswagen Jetta.

They decided to stop at the Gate a few miles from their hotel to get a bottle of wine, and parked next to a Dodge Durango that contained Davis and his three friends.

Loud rap music was emanating from the Durango and when Dunn said he hated that thug music Rouer replied “I know,” gave him a kiss and left Dunn in the car while she went in to get the wine.

When Rouer went inside the store, Dunn asked the teenagers to turn down the music. The teen in the front seat complied. Davis, who was sitting in the right rear passenger seat, then told his friend to turn the music back up and cursed at Dunn.

While at the cashier’s counter, Rouer heard the sound of gunshots, looked outside and saw Dunn leaning out of his window. Dunn repeatedly told her to get into the car, and when she did she saw him put the gun he carried in the glove compartment.

Dunn has claimed Davis threatened him with a gun, and he fired to defend himself. But no weapon was found at the scene and Rouer said the Durango had already fled when she looked outside.

She did not witness any of the confrontation between her fiance and Davis, Rouer said.

The couple drove back to their hotel, ordered a pizza and watched a movie. But Rouer said they were both freaked out by what happened and she expected police to arrive at any moment to arrest them.

She said that in 3 1/2 years of knowing Dunn, she’d never seen him as shaken as the night he killed Davis.

“What I know about Michael that night,” she said, “is that he was concerned about me.”

The next morning she saw on television that Davis had been killed. Rouer said she told Dunn they had to leave because she was scared, and they drove back down to Satellite Beach in Brevard County, where they lived.

Rouer said they weren’t fleeing the crime, she just wanted to get home and try to figure out what to do with their dog. She expected to be arrested along with Dunn, but has never been charged with a crime.

Dunn was arrested later that day because a homeless man at the Gate wrote down his license plate number. A Brevard County deputy testified Saturday that Dunn was told to come out with his shirt off and his hands up, and he was taken into custody.

Before Rouer entered the courtroom, defense attorney Cory Strolla cross-examined Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detective Marc Musser in one of the tensest testimonies so far in the trial.

Strolla has argued that Dunn shot Davis in self-defense after Davis threatened to kill him and displayed a gun. No weapon was ever found at the crime scene, but Strolla has argued the three surviving teenagers hid it in the bushes or may have thrown it on the roof of a nearby building before police arrived.

Those teenagers, Leland Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson, all testified Friday that Davis cursed at Dunn when he asked them to turn the music down, but didn’t threaten him. The trio said there was never a gun in the car.

But Strolla has said Jacksonville police never investigated whether the teenagers might have hidden a gun in a connected parking lot that they briefly fled into after Dunn shot at them. That parking lot was never roped off as a potential crime scene.

Musser indicated that he did not view the teenagers as suspects, which is why their statements to police were not videotaped, and why the adjacent parking lot was never searched.

The detective also said he never went back to the Gate gas station to get video recordings of that night to determine if the witnesses inside, including the three teenagers, gathered inside were talking. Strolla seemed to be trying to suggest that the witnesses were colluding, making their testimonies match.

Musser also said he didn’t search the trash bins close to the parking lot until four days later, but he said that the bins were far from where the Dodge Durango parked in the adjacent parking lot. He also said the closest building to the Durango was about 40 yards away, making it next to impossible for someone to throw a gun onto the roof.

If the Durango was too far away from the building for the teenagers to throw a weapon onto the roof, Strolla asked, then why did Musser ask for aerial photographs of the roof to be taken. Musser said, “Because I knew you would ask.”

Musser got one of the laughs of the day from the people in the courtroom, including several jurors, when he said that.

Dunn is charged with the first-degree murder of Davis and the attempted murders of Brunson, Stormes and Thompson. He faces life in prison if convicted of killing Davis.

The trial is in recess until Monday at 9 a.m. when a fourth day of testimony begins. The state is likely to finish its case sometime Monday with Strolla starting to present his case on Monday or Tuesday.